Peavey

Peavey may not be the most recognizable or best guitar maker, but they are still one of the most popular amplifiers and electronics manufacturers. The company born in Mississippi was awarded the George Bush Sr. Award for being the only American company to distribute its products to more than 130 countries around the world.

Brief history:

Peavey Electronics was founded in 1964 by Harley Peavy who had to build the amplifier himself since his father didn’t want to buy it.The company gained momentum surprisingly quickly, and a year later Harley earned $8000 while still at college. Despite good money, the first amplifiers were created in the basement of the house of Harley's parents.

Harley himself said that the time when the company was created was far from the best. In the 60s, all guitar manufacturers were replaced by large companies, so the demand for amplifiers fell dramatically.

It was then that Harley decided to get into serious business - he took 17500 dollars and opened his own company. He had already expanded production a little bit moving from the basement to the attic of his father's music store.

The business seemed to run alright, and in 1973 the company, which used to be supervised by only two colleagues (a seller and Harley himself) in 1966, could boast of a 150-employee crew. Two years later the company started producing guitars, although success was shaky. They produced guitars, mostly as a response to influential companies, and sold guitars together with amplifiers.

Among remarkable models of Peavey Electronics there are: 5150 Peavey Amplifier - originally developed for Van Halen, XXX and JSX series - amplifiers with the signature of Joe Satriani, Bandit series, CS800 amplifier and many others.

Today Peavey hasn’t yet rushed into the guitar market, only a few models have received some fame, such as Wolfgang electric guitars. However, the fact that their amplifiers are used by many musicians and even some guitar players, has been proving the company’s significance for 53 years already.

We hope to see new models introduced by the company pretty soon. And, of course, new amp models as well.

Technical and technological achievements:

The music business has changed a lot for more than half a century since an enthusiastic musician whose name is Harley Peavy created his first guitar amplifier. The tendencies changed, the companies producing musical equipment appeared and disappeared, and those that survived managed to pick new owners several times. But not "Peavey". Harley Peavy, the founder and leader, is still the ideological core and driving force of Peavey Electronics. He also remains the sole owner and shareholder, so he doesn’t care what boards of directors, other shareholders or banks think about. What matters to him is what you think. Such a customer-oriented position proved to be a win-win concept option and sticking to this simple principle the company achieved impressive results. It was decided to create really innovative high-quality and reliable products for practicing musicians – for anyone. Following the chosen philosophy, Peavy achieved significant success, creating products that weren’t afraid of fashion trends and would stand firm being time-tested; more than 180 patents worldwide have been registered in the segment of music and sound technology innovation. Some of these innovations are well-known, others are narrow-technical, and some have forever changed the whole industry, like when a modern technology for producing high-end guitars and bass guitars based on specially modified numerically controlled machines was created. Or take for example MediaMatrix system which allowed specialists to manage giant sound reinforcement systems at stadiums, airports, theme parks and during the popular events with the help of a single computer.

So what does it mean? It means that Peavey Electronics still carries the heart and soul of that same good old Peavey, a company that cares about its products and musicians. It means that the crew has developed steadily being led by a permanent leader for more than five decades, while other companies have to make the learning curve each time the next manager takes office. It means that when the product features the Peavey logo you may be sure that there’s a real person behind the name - Harley Peavy, who’s responsible for the product as much as for the logo. He himself wrote that their history was one of the components of development and full commitment to the best products, people and industrial technologies, they never had the intention to become one of the largest music and sound equipment manufacturers... it was the result on the chosen path, their goal was (and is) in being the best, while true perfection was an unattainable human dream, the search of it provides an exciting stimulus that kept them committed to this goal.

Symbol of quality and success:

Peavey Corporation has been actively working on the international market of sound/music equipment for more than 50 years and currently occupies one of the first places in the world in terms of sales in the relevant segment. The reason hides in the high quality of Peavey products coupled with incredibly competitive prices. Peavey trademark is truly popular since products bearing this name are always in demand and are famous among users of any level from top musicians and super professional sound engineers working on the most serious projects to amateurs composing music at home. A concert at a stadium or in a park, the sound in a theater or a conference hall, the equipment for a small bar or a global disco, a studio session or the technical support of music schools - Peavey easily copes with almost any task offering the widest product line to the most demanding taste.

An important fact is that the high-tech and often innovative equipment produced by Peavey, which meets all the growing requirements of our time and sports all the modern features, has one of the highest reliability indicators in the world and is sold at incredibly affordable prices for products of this level. This explains the fact of unconditional leadership in sales of Peavey instruments in the USA proving the true popularity of this brand among the American musicians.

After 45 years, starting with the first PA systems and guitar amplifiers assembled in a garage to a huge powerful and modern corporation, the company managed to overtake and survive a lot of competitors. This was achieved thanks to people’s love for "Peavey", its affordability for a wide range of enthusiastic people. From the very beginning the founder and permanent chief of the company Harley Peavy has been adhering to the "fair" price principle. Thanks to this approach he revealed opportunities for creativity and professional growth to hundreds of thousands of talented people and won the sincere gratitude of users first in USA and then all over the world. In Crete, Copenhagen, Moscow, Ulan Bator or Sydney Peavey is invariably present in the lists of the most popular brands of acoustic systems, guitar amplifiers, mixing consoles and other audio equipment, and to this day keeps leadership positions on any market it enters.